JAILED FORMER MP and don Ateeq Ahmed, his younger brother and former MLA Ashraf, and others have been booked for allegedly threatening and assaulting a prime witness in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case. Advocate Umesh Pal, the complainant, has alleged that he was threatened and assaulted in court when he went to get his statement recorded in a kidnapping case.

Umesh is the cousin of former MLA Pooja Pal — Raju Pal’s wife, also the complainant in the murder case. Ateeq and Ashraf are the main accused in the murder case. The CBI is probing the case following a Supreme Court direction of January 3, 2016. Ateeq is lodged at Deoria District Jail.

Umesh said that while he was assaulted in January 2016, his complaint was then turned down by police. On directives of the SSP, an FIR was lodged at Colonelganj police station in Allahabad Sunday. “An FIR against 24 named people, including Ateeq and Ashraf, and 25 unidentified persons has been lodged on charges of issuing threats and assaulting Umesh Pal,” SHO Avadhesh Pratap Singh said.